DISCOVERING IRELAND - Key Persons
Born Nicholas Christopher Michael Ring but better known as Christy, was arguably the best hurler ever to have lived. He represented his club and county at the highest level throughout a senior career that lasted 27 years and saw him score 33 goals and 208 points in 64 games representing Cork. He retired from intercounty hurling in 1963 and from club hurling in 1967. Christy was the first ever player to win eight All-Ireland Senior medals on the fireld of play, a feat that has never been exceeded.
Ellen Buckley was the second wife of O'Donovan Rossa the Irish Patriot She was born in Gortbrack in the Castlehaven parish outside the town of Skibbereen.They were married in 1861 and she died giving birth to their son Florence in July 1863.
Ellen Buckley is a distant relative of Conor B Buckley founder of DiscoveringTravel.
Grace O'Malley's extraordinary life centres around the 16th Century Tudor conquest of Ireland under Queen Elizabeth I. Grace was the daughter of the O'Malley Clan chieftain who controlled the south west of County Mayo and its coast from their castle on Clare Island. They were a renowned seafaring family who controlled the sea routes along the west coast of Ireland, charging a tax to fishermen and traders.
In 1546 Grace was married at a young age to the head of the O'Flaherty Clan, but when he was killed in battle, Grace became the head of the O'Flaherty's as well. Grace later remarried another powerful Irish Chief Richard Burke, but divorced him after one year under the ancient Brehon Laws and got to keep his title and Rockfleet Castle near Newport in Co. Mayo.
As England steadily gained control of Ireland, Grace came under increasing pressure to relent to the English crown. An expedition from Galway attacked Grace in her castle on Clare Island, so Grace turned to piracy, blockading the port of Galway and attacking English ships in Galway Bay.
When the English governor of Connaught, Sir Richard Bingham captured Grace O'Malley's two sons, she set sail for England to speak to Queen Elizabeth I face to face. Her ships sailed up the River Thames in London, where Grace met Queen Elizabeth at Greenwich. On meeting the Queen, Grace refused to bow, stating that she herself was a Queen of her land and not a subject of the Queen of England. The two, who were roughly the same age apparently, admired each other, and reached a truce; Grace would stop switch from attacking English ships to attacking Spanish ones and her sons were returned to her.
James Goodman was born on the Dingle peninsula in Ventry, County Kerry on 22nd September 1828, the third child in a family of nine children. The indigenous population spoke the Gaelic (Irish) language and James grew up bilingual but having a real affection for both the native language and culture. His father was The Reverend Thomas Chute Goodman, rector of the local Church of Ireland (Protestant) parish. As a young boy he met with a piper called Tom Kennedy who was well known locally and who carried a huge store of melodies in his head. The Goodman household was known locally for hosting musical evenings. James graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1851 and married Charlotte King a year later in 1852. They had three sons together, Francis George (b.1853), Godfrey (b.1854) and James (b.1856).
Following his ordination as a minister in the Church Of Ireland in 1853, he was appointed to the parish of Creagh between the towns of Skibbereen and Baltimore in West Cork. He was subsequently appointed to a parish on the Beara peninsula near Ardgroom and it was here that he learned to play the Irish bagpipes or Uileann (Gaelic for "elbow") pipes. He also began what was to be his greatest achievment, which was collecting Irish traditional melodies and writing them down in notation unheard of before then in what was an oral/aural tradition. Many of the tunes he collected were given to him by Tom Kennedy who travelled to the Beara peninsula to meet Canon Goodman and play the melodies for him. Eventually he collected almost 2,000 melodies in four volumes under the collective title "The Tunes of the Munster Pipers". These volumes are now in the library of Trinity College Dublin.
He was appointed to the parish of Abbeystrewery in Skibbereen in 1866 and contributed personally to the rebuilding costs of the by then dilapidated church there. He was widely admired and respected in the locality and is remembered for playing his pipes seated under a tree outside his rectory or mending his pipes and sharing tunes with visiting pipers. He and his housekeeper Lizzie distributed alms to the local poor every Monday who came to his house for this purpose. They were known locally as "Goodman's pensioners".
In 1879 he was appointed Professor of Irish at Trinity College Dublin and he combined his clerical duties in Skibbereen with his academic duties spending six months in Dublin and six months in Skibbereen. Amongst his pupils were Douglas Hyde, the founder of the Gaelic League and first president of Ireland and John Millington Synge the noted playwright.
He died on 18th January 1896. The Irish Times noted in his obituary that, "The death of this popular, esteemed and well-known clergyman will be received with feelings of deep and sincere regret far outside the limits of West Cork, where he was so well known and universally respected by all creeds and classes of society."
Job Titles:
- Writers of the 20th Century
One of the most influential writers of the 20th Century, James Joyce is one of Ireland's most important authors, whose works include Dubliners, Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake.
James Joyce was born in 1882, in the Dublin suburb of Rathgar. He was the eldest of ten surviving children in an educated middle class Catholic family. After moving to the fashionable Dublin area of Bray in 1887, the family's prosperity fell into decline, due to the father's alcoholism and they were declared bankrupt by 1893.
Initially Joyce enjoyed a prestigious education at a boarding school in County Kildare, until 1892, when his father could no longer afford the fees. Joyce was then schooled at the Christian Brother's school on North Richmond Street, Dublin, before being enrolled at the Jesuit Belvedere School in 1893, with the hope of joining the Order. However Joyce was later to renounce Catholicism. In 1898, Joyce enrolled at the recently established University College Dublin, where he studied English, French and Italian and took an active role in Dublin's theatrical and literary circles.
After graduating from UCD in 1903, Joyce headed to Paris to study medicine, but returned to Ireland after his mother was diagnosed with cancer. After her death Joyce began drinking heavily, scraping a living teaching and reviewing books. He had a draft of A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man turned down in 1904 and later in that same year met the woman he would later marry, - a young chambermaid from Connemara, in Co. Galway named Nora Barnacle. Their first date together was 16th June 1904, a date that would be later commemorated in Joyce's most famous work Ulysses.
Shortly after they met James and Nora eloped to Europe, where Joyce planned to teach English. The couple moved first to Zurich, then to Trieste where they remained for the next ten years. During World War One, Joyce moved back to Zurich, where he met Ezra Pound, who brought him into contact with his future publisher and patron Harriet Shaw Weaver. Joyce then moved to Paris in 1920, where he would live for the next 20 years until returning to Zurich to escape Nazi occupation in 1940. In 1941 Joyce underwent surgery on a perforated ulcer, but following complications died on 13th January. James Joyce is buried in Zurich's Fluntern Cemetery along with his wife Nora, whom he married in 1931 and their eldest son George.
Joyce's major works include Dubliners, published in 1914. This collection of short stories, were according to Joyce, ‘epiphanies' and a detailed analysis of Dublin society. The most famous story, The Dead was made into a film in1987, the last to be directed by John Huston. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) is a largely autobiographical, coming of age novel surrounding the main character Stephen Dedalus - Joyce's self-depiction. Joyce's final novel was Finnegan's Wake, (1939) which was published as a series in literary magazine Transition under the title Working Project.
Joyce's most famous novel, regarded as his masterpiece, is Ulysses (1922). The story revolves around a day in the life (16th June 1904 to be precise) of Leopold Bloom as he undertakes a meandering tour through the streets of Dublin stopping Davy Byrne's Pub, the National Library, and various other pubs dotted around Dublin's red light district. Ulysses is celebrated in Dublin, on 16th June with Bloomsday an event with a range of cultural activities from live recitals and street theatre bringing to life the characters from the novel, in full Edwardian costume.
At the time, Joyce's writings were both praised and derided for adopting stream of consciousness, internal monologue and other literary features that were new for the time. Joyce's subject matter also courted controversy, and were criticised as vulgar and obscene, leading to the banning of Ulysses in the US, the UK and Ireland, when it was first published. Nevertheless James Joyce is heralded as one of the most influential writers of his generation, a doyen of modernist literary thought and one of Ireland's most prominent literary sons.
Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa was born in 1831 in a small village called Reenascreena near Rosscarbery, West Cork, a scenic popular are of South West Ireland visited frequently by those on self drive tours. He was the son of a tenant farmer, Denis O'Donovan and his wife Nellie O'Driscoll. While a young boy, the failure of the main food crop of the Irish population which was the potato, in sucessive years between 1845 and 1847 lead to a devastating famine which hit the West Cork area in which he lived, particularly hard. The Great Famine as it became known, caused one million Irish people to lose their lives in these years and another million to emigrate. O'Donovan Rossa's own father died in 1847 of an illness related to severe malnutrition and the teenager moved to Skibbereen to work in his cousin's shop in the town.
The 1848 Young Irelander rebellion and the growing independence/anti-imperialist movements in Europe around this time inspired the young O'Donovan Rossa and in 1856 he formed the "Phoenix National Literary Society" in Skibbereen town. This was essentially a secret society whose aim was Irish independence from Britain. He married the first of his three wives, Nano Eager, a Killarney woman, in 1853. By 1858 he had been sworn into the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) known colloquially as the "Fenians", a reference to "Na Fianna" a band of warriors who defended Ireland from invaders in Irish mythology. Following the death of his first wife in 1860 he subsequently married Ellen Buckley from Castlehaven who died in childbirth in 1863.
He was imprisoned in 1865 as a result of his activities as manager of the nationalist newspaper "The Irish People" and served his prison sentence in a variety of prisons in England. His peers planned the rebellion of 1867 which failed after a few brief skirmishes and armed battles in some isolated parts of Ireland, most notably Tallaght outside Dublin. The ringleaders of the rebellion were rounded up by the authorities and also eventually imprisoned in England following trial.
The Fenian prisoners were granted early release from jail in 1871 following a public enquiry into the conditions in which they, including O'Donovan Rossa were held. All the released prisoners were forced to emigrate and O'Donovan Rossa moved to New York City with his now third wife, Mary Irwin from Clonakilty in West Cork, whom he had married in 1864. They were to have thirteen children together. He ran the Chatham Hotel, in Chatham Square in Manhattan in subsequent years in the notorious "Five Points" district which now is in the heart of modern day Chinatown. This was made famous in recent years by being the setting for the Martin Scorcese film, "The Gangs of New York" (2002).
While in New York, O'Donovan Rossa continued his fight against British rule in Ireland and very sucessfully raised money to fund a so called "Skirmishing Fund" - essentially a late nineteenth century terror and bombing campaign. His fame grew further as he ran for office in New York city immediately upon his arrival, against the infamous "Boss" Tweed of Tammany Hall fame. Although ultimately unsuccessful, his public utterances and writings as well as his continued support for the physical force tradition of Irish nationalism kept him in the public eye on both sides of the Atlantic. He was finally released from banishment by the British government in 1891 and travelled to Ireland in 1894 and again in 1904.
Although he lived for a short period of time in Cork City around this time, he returned to live in Staten Island, New York City and died there on 29th June 1915. The leadership of the republican/nationalist movement in Ireland saw an opportunity to use the death of O'Donovan Rossa as a propaganda outlet and requested their comrades in the United States send his remains home for burial in Ireland. He was given a public funeral which attracted a very large attendance from throughout the island of Ireland and the eulogy at his graveside was given by Padraig Pearse who was to come to even greater public prominence nine months later as the leader of the 1916 rebellion in Dublin known as "The Easter Rising". The speech is one of the most famous pieces of Irish oratory and a part of the closing section is quoted below.
Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa is buried in Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin. He is commemorated in Ireland by a bridge over the river Liffey named in his honour, a monument in Saint Stephen's Green in Dublin City centre, a park (with statue) named after him in Skibbereen, County Cork and several Gaelic football and hurling teams named in his honour including the Skibbereen G.A.A. Club O'Donovan Rossa.
Michael Collins was born in Woodfield, Sam's Cross outside the town of Clonakilty in West Cork in 1890. He inherited his father's nationalistic outlook and was further influenced by his primary school teacher Denis Lyons who was a member of the IRB and also by the local blacksmith, James Santry. Collins spent time in the forge with Santry which was close to the primary school and he never forgot the stories he heard there about the struggle for Irish freedom. Little by little his siblings left home including his sister Hannie who went to London to work in the Post Office Savings Bank there.
Young Michael moved a few miles down the road to Clonakilty to live with his sister Margaret and her husband while he continued his education there. It was his mother's wish that the young Michael also secure a good job and so in 1905 he sat an examination for the Civil Service in London and when he was notified he had passed, he opted to take up a position in the same Post Office Savings Bank as his sister Hannie.
He took part in the 1916 Rising in Dublin and was imprisoned in Wales following his capture. He negotiated the Anglo Irish Treaty in 1921 which lead to the creation of the Irish Free State and ultimately lead to civil war in Ireland.Following the ratification of the Treaty of 1921, Collins became Chairman of the Provisional Government (effectively the Prime Minister) and later at the outbreak fo the Civil War following the occupation of the Four Courts in Dublin by anti-treaty forces, he assumed leadership of the Free State Army as its Commander-in-Chief.
He died on 22nd August 1922 at Beal na mBlath in County Cork when the convoy in which he was travelling was ambushed by anti-treaty forces on his way back to Cork City having spent the day visiting the Free State Army in West Cork; of which he was by then Commander in Chief. He visited the Eldon Hotel in Skibbereen on the afternoon of the 22nd August 1922 and had a meal there before continuing on his way towards his destiny at Beal na mBlath. There is a statue of him in Clonakilty which was unveiled by the actor Liam Neeson who played the title role in the film "Michael Collins" (1996) directed by Neil Jordan.
The poet Patrick Kavanagh is one of Ireland's favourite literary figures with famous works including On Raglan Road and the Great Hunger. In November, Kavanagh is commemorated with the annual Patrick Kavanagh Weekend in the poet's hometown.
Patrick Kavanagh was born on 21st October 1904 in the small rural town of Inniskeen in Co. Monaghan, the son of a cobbler and small hold farmer. Kavanagh moved to Dublin during the 1930s, but his rural roots were to inspire his writings. Kavanagh's country ways and rustic imagery often invited scathing mockery from Dublin's literary elite, but they undoubtedly won over the people, in a way that other poets didn't. In 2000 the Irish Times newspaper rated Kavanagh as Ireland's second favourite poet, behind W.B. Yeats and of the nation's favourite fifty poems, ten were penned by Patrick Kavanagh.
Among Kavanagh's best known works are the Great Hunger, an epic poem reflecting the sexual repression of the Irish farmer and On Raglan Road, written in Dublin in 1946 and popularised in the songs of Van Morrison, Luke Kelly of the Dubliners, Mark Knopfler, Billy Bragg and Sinead O'Connor.
Patrick Kavanagh died on 30th November 1967 and is laid to rest in the town of his birth, Inniskeen. The poet is commemorated in Ireland with the National Patrick Kavanagh Day in July and the Annual Patrick Kavanagh Weekend, on the last weekend of November with a programme of events, literary tours, storytelling and readings held in Inniskeen, welcoming visitors from around the world.
Kavanagh devotees visiting Inniskeen should stop by the Patrick Kavanagh Centre, which houses exhibitions on the life and works of the poet and on local history. The centre also runs hugely entertaining tours along the Kavanagh Trail which takes in many local sites immortalised by Kavanagh's poems such as Tarry Flynn and the Green Fool, with a few amusing anecdotes and readings along the way.
Samuel Beckett was born in Foxrock, Dublin, on April 13th 1906. In 1919 Beckett went to the prestigious Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, whose former graduates had also included Oscar Wilde. Afterwards Beckett studied at Trinity College Dublin from 1923 to 1927, before lecturing at the university in 1930. Becket spent some time in the 1930 journeying France, Germany and Russia, before settling in Paris as a lecturer shortly before the war. During World War II, Beckett joined the French Resistance and was rewarded for his efforts with the Croix de Guerre and the Medaille de la Resistance.
Beckett's work is characterised as stark, minimalist and existentialist and as pessimistic by some circles. His most famous work is arguably Waiting for Godot (1952), a tale of two tramps waiting in vain for one of their friends. The success of Waiting for Godot propelled Beckett to fame and further critical acclaim followed with plays such as Endgame (1957). Beckett began to garner a distinctive style examining the existential questions in life, quite often with some extreme surrealism. Beckett's work continued to build momentum and in 1969 Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature,
Beckett died on 22nd December 1989, he is buried in Paris with his Wife, and at the foot of his grave is a solitary tree, a reminder of the stage set for his most famous play. Beckett is remembered as one of the most influential writers of his generation.